Lancer

Polish Vistula lancer and Austrian cuirassier in close combat or mêlée

A lancer was a type of cavalryman who fought with a lance. Lances were used in mounted warfare by the Assyrians as early as 700 BC and subsequently by Greek, Persian, Gallic, Han-Chinese, nomadic and Roman horsemen,[1] the weapon was widely used in Asia and Europe during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance by armoured cavalry, before being adopted by light cavalry, particularly in Eastern Europe. In a modern context, a lancer regiment usually denotes an armoured unit.

The lancer (called ułan in Polish and Uhlan in German) had become a common sight in almost every European, Ottoman and Indian army during this time, but, with the exception of the Ottoman troops, they increasingly discarded the heavy armour to give greater freedom of movement in combat, the Polish "winged" lancers were amongst the last to abandon the armour in Europe. There was a widespread debate over the value of the lance in mounted combat during the 18th and 19th centuries and most armies had few lancer units by the beginning of the 19th century; however, during the Napoleonic Wars, lancers were to be seen in many of the combatant nations as their qualities became clear. During the wars, the Poles became a ready territory for recruitment by several armies, willingly or unwillingly, and served with distinction in most of these armies, most famously in Napoleon's French Imperial Guard as the 1er Regiment de Chevau-Legers-Lanciers de la Garde Impériale.

The charge of the British 16th Lancers at Aliwal on 28 January 1846, during the Anglo-Sikh war

At the Battle of Waterloo, French lances were "nearly three meters (about nine feet, ten inches) long, weighed three kilograms (about six pounds, ten ounces), and had a steel point on a wooden staff," according to historian Alessandro Barbero, he adds that they were "terrifyingly efficient." Commander of the French 1st Corps, 4th Division General Durutte, who saw the battle from the high ground in front of Papelotte, would write later, "I had never before realized the great superiority of the lance over the sword."[2]

In the Siege of Los Angeles (1846), during the war between Mexico and the United States, a company of Californio lancers temporarily recaptured the town, expelling a company of U.S. Marines.

Although the lance had its greatest impact in the charge, lancers were vulnerable against other cavalry, as the lance proved a clumsy and ineffective weapon (compared to the sabre) at close quarters.[3] By the late 19th century, many cavalry regiments in the British and other European armies were composed of troopers with lances (as well as sabres or other secondary weapons) in the front rank and men with sabres in the second; the lances for the initial shock and sabres for the mêlée.

Lancers typically wore a double-breasted jacket (kurtka) with a coloured panel (plastron) at the front, a coloured sash, and a square-topped Polish cap (czapka). Their lances usually had small swallow-tailed flags (known as the lance pennon) just below the spearhead, the pennons were normally removed or wrapped in a canvas cover on active service. With the improved range and accuracy of infantry rifles, the high-profile presented by lancers with their conspicuous weapons became a problem, the ułans or uhlans, as lancers are known in the Polish and German languages respectively, were trained to lower their lances when scouting on hill-tops.

The British lancer regiments lost this weapon for all but ceremonial use following the Boer War, but a conservative backlash led to its reintroduction for active service from 1908 to 1928,[Note 1] the French army did not have lancer regiments as such, but steel lances 2.97 metres in length were carried by the twenty-six dragoon regiments and some light cavalry units in 1914. The French had earlier tested the Indian bamboo lances used by the British cavalry, but had rated them as being too fragile for the shock of encounter.[6]

Volunteer Representative Squadron of the City of Poznań in the uniform of the 15th Uhlan Regiment of Poznań from 1939

Prior to the outbreak of World War I, there had been controversy as to whether lances or sabres were the more effective "armes blanches" (that is edged weapons) for cavalry, but neither proved a match for modern firearms, some armies continued to use lances throughout this war, but they seldom saw use on the Western Front after initial clashes in France and Belgium in 1914. On the Eastern Front, mounted cavalry still had a role and lances saw limited use by the Russian, German and Austrian armies.[7]

During the 1920s, the use of lances ceased for active service in most armies. British and Indian lancer regiments continued to carry lances on mounted parades, until mechanization took place in the late 1930s, some other armies retained lance armed ceremonial units. The Polish cavalry did not discard the lance as a weapon until 1934 and continued to train with lances until the outbreak of World War II.[8]

1.
Cuirassier
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Cuirassiers were cavalry equipped with armour and firearms, first appearing in late 15th-century Europe. This French term means one with a cuirass, the armour which they wore. The first cuirassiers were produced as a result of armoured cavalry, such as the man-at-arms and demi-lancer, discarding their lances, in the later 17th century, the cuirassier lost his limb armour and subsequently employed only the cuirass, and sometimes a helmet. By this time, the sword was the weapon of the cuirassier. Cuirassiers achieved increased prominence during the Napoleonic Wars and were last fielded in the stages of World War I. Cuirassiers continue to be employed as ceremonial troops by a number of countries, the first cuirassiers were similar in appearance to the fully armoured Late Medieval man-at-arms. They wore three-quarter armour that covered the upper body as well as the front half of the legs down to the knee. The head was protected by a helm, burgonet or lobster-tailed pot helmet. The torso was protected by a breast and back plate, sometimes reinforced by a placate, the arms and shoulders were fully armoured with pauldrons, rerebraces, elbow couters and vambraces. Armoured gauntlets were often abandoned, particularly for the right hand, long tassets, instead of a combination of short tassets with cuisses, protected the front of the thighs and knees, Riding boots were substituted for lower leg armour. Weapons included a pair of pistols in saddle holsters, sometimes a pick. The armour of a cuirassier was very expensive, in England, in 1629, during the latter half of the 16th century, the heavy knightly lance gradually fell out of use perhaps because of the widespread adoption of the infantry pike. Also, the lance required an amount of practice to perfect its use. The lancer or demi-lancer, when he had abandoned his lance, following some initial successes, this tactic proved to be extremely ineffective as infantry, with superior firearms and numbers could easily outgun the cuirassiers. The change from cavalry being reliant on firearms, to close combat cavalry reliant mainly on the sword was often attributed to Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in the 1620s and 1630s. Only two cuirassier regiments were raised during the English Civil War, the Lifeguard of the Earl of Essex, with the refinement of infantry firearms, especially the introduction of the powerful musket, the usefulness of the protection afforded by full armour became greatly lessened. By the mid 17th century, the fully armoured cuirassier was becoming increasingly anachronistic, the cuirassier lost his limb armour and entered the 18th century with just the breast and backplate. Cuirassiers played a prominent role in the armies of Austria, by the time of the French Revolutionary War, few heavy cavalry regiments, excepting those of Austria, wore the cuirass on campaign

2.
Cavalry
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Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the most mobile of the combat arms, an individual soldier in the cavalry is known by a number of designations such as cavalryman, horseman, dragoon or trooper. The designation of cavalry was not usually given to any military forces that used animals, such as camels. Cavalry had the advantage of improved mobility, and a man fighting from horseback also had the advantages of greater height, speed, another element of horse mounted warfare is the psychological impact a mounted soldier can inflict on an opponent. In Europe cavalry became increasingly armoured, and eventually became known for the mounted knights, in the period between the World Wars, many cavalry units were converted into motorized infantry and mechanized infantry units, or reformed as tank troops. Most cavalry units that are horse-mounted in modern armies serve in purely ceremonial roles, modern usage of the term generally refers to specialist units equipped with tanks or aircraft. The shock role, traditionally filled by heavy cavalry, is filled by units with the armored designation. Before the Iron Age, the role of cavalry on the battlefield was largely performed by light chariots, the chariot originated with the Sintashta-Petrovka culture in Central Asia and spread by nomadic or semi-nomadic Indo-Iranians. The power of mobility given by mounted units was recognized early on, Cavalry techniques were an innovation of equestrian nomads of the Central Asian and Iranian steppe and pastoralist tribes such as the Persian Parthians and Sarmatians. The photograph above left shows Assyrian cavalry from reliefs of 865–860 BC, at this time, the men had no spurs, saddles, saddle cloths, or stirrups. Fighting from the back of a horse was more difficult than mere riding. The cavalry acted in pairs, the reins of the archer were controlled by his neighbours hand. Even at this time, cavalry used swords, shields. The sculpture implies two types of cavalry, but this might be a simplification by the artist, Later images of Assyrian cavalry show saddle cloths as primitive saddles, allowing each archer to control his own horse. As early as 490 BC a breed of horses was bred in the Nisaean plain in Media to carry men with increasing amounts of armour. However, chariots remained in use for purposes such as carrying the victorious general in a Roman triumph. The southern Britons met Julius Caesar with chariots in 55 and 54 BC, the last mention of chariot use in battle was by the Caledonians at the Mons Graupius, in 84 AD. During the classical Greek period cavalry were usually limited to citizens who could afford expensive war-horses

3.
Lance
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The lance is a pole weapon or spear designed to be used by a mounted warrior or cavalry soldier. Lances were often equipped with a vamplate – a small circular plate to prevent the hand sliding up the shaft upon impact. The name is derived from the word lancea - the Roman auxiliaries javelin or throwing knife, although according to the OED, also compare λόγχη, a Greek term for spear or lance. A lance in the sense is a light throwing spear. The English verb to launch fling, hurl, throw is derived from the term, the term from the 17th century came to refer specifically to spears not thrown, used for thrusting by heavy cavalry, and especially in jousting. A thrusting spear which is used by infantry is referred to as a pike. The second use of the lance in this sense was made by the Assyrians, long thrusting cavalry spears were especially popular among the Hellenistic armies agema and line cavalry. One of the most effective ancient lanced cavalry units was Alexander the Greats Companion cavalry, the Roman cavalry long thrusting spear was called a contus. It was usually 3 to 4m long, and grasped with both hands and it was employed by equites contariorum and equites cataphractarii, fully armed and armoured cataphracts. The Byzantine cavalry used lances almost exclusively, often in mixed lancer, the Byzantines used lance both overarm and underarm, couched. It is commonly believed that this became the dominant European cavalry tactic in the 11th century after the development of the saddle and stirrups. Cavalry thus outfitted and deployed had a collective force in their charge. Recent evidence has suggested, however, that the charge was effective without the benefit of stirrups. Because of the stopping power of a thrusting spear, it quickly became a popular weapon of infantry in the Late Middle Ages. These eventually led to the rise of the longest type of spears and this adaptation of the cavalry lance to infantry use was largely tasked with stopping lance-armed cavalry charges. In Europe, a lance was a variation of the knights lance which was modified from its original war design. The centre of the shaft of such lances could be designed to be hollow, in order for it to break on impact and they were often at least 4m long, and had hand guards built into the lance, often tapering for a considerable portion of the weapons length. These are the versions that can most often be seen at medieval reenactment festivals, in war, lances were much more like stout spears, long and balanced for one-handed use, and with sharpened tips

4.
Roman cavalry
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Roman cavalry refers to the horse mounted forces of the Roman army through the many centuries of its existence. Romulus supposedly established a cavalry regiment of 300 men called the Celeres to act as his personal escort and this cavalry regiment was supposedly doubled in size to 600 men by King Tarquinius Priscus. According to Livy, Servius Tullius also established a further 12 centuriae of cavalry, but this is unlikely, as it would have increased the cavalry to 1,800 horse, implausibly large compared to 8,400 infantry. This is confirmed by the fact that in the early Republic the cavalry fielded remained 600-strong, the royal cavalry may have been drawn exclusively from the ranks of the Patricians, the aristocracy of early Rome, which was purely hereditary, although some consider the supporting evidence tenuous. Since the cavalry was probably a patrician preserve, it follows that it played a critical part in the coup against the monarchy. Indeed, Alfoldi suggests that the coup was carried out by the Celeres themselves, however, the patrician monopoly on the cavalry seems to have ended by around 400 BC, when the 12 centuriae of equites additional to the original 6 of regal origin were probably formed. Most likely patrician numbers were no longer sufficient to supply the needs of the cavalry. It is widely agreed that the new centuriae were open to non-patricians, as their name implies, the equites were liable to cavalry service in the Polybian legion. It appears that equites equo privato were required to pay for their own equipment and horse, cavalrymen in service were paid a drachma per day, triple the infantry rate, and were liable to a maximum of ten campaigning seasons military service, compared to 16 for the infantry. Each Polybian legion contained a contingent of 300 horse, which does not appear to have been officered by an overall commander. The cavalry contingent was divided into 10 turmae of 30 men each, the squadron members would elect as their officers three decuriones, of whom the first to be chosen would act as the squadrons leader and the other two as his deputies. From the available evidence, the cavalry of a Polybian legion was armoured and specialised in the shock charge, pictorial evidence for the equipment of Republican cavalry is scant and leaves several uncertainties. The earliest extant representations of Roman cavalrymen are found on a few dated to the era of the Second Punic War. In one, the rider wears a variant of a Corinthian helmet and his body armour is obscured by his small round shield. It was probably a bronze breastplate, as a coin of 197 BC shows a Roman cavalryman in Hellenistic composite cuirass, but the Roman cavalry may already have adopted mail armour from the Celts, who are known to have been using it as early as ca.300 BC. However, a coin of 136 BC and the Lacus Curtius bas-relief of the period show horsemen in composite bronze cuirasses. There is similar uncertainty as to whether cavalryman carried shields and the question of whether they carried long lances or shorter spears. Most representations show cavalrymen with the small parma equestris type of shield, but the Ahenobarbus monument of 122 BC, but the evidence is too scant to draw any firm conclusions

5.
Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period

6.
Renaissance
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The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe. This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science, Early examples were the development of perspective in oil painting and the recycled knowledge of how to make concrete. Although the invention of movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century. In politics, the Renaissance contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, the Renaissance began in Florence, in the 14th century. Other major centres were northern Italian city-states such as Venice, Genoa, Milan, Bologna, the word Renaissance, literally meaning Rebirth in French, first appeared in English in the 1830s. The word also occurs in Jules Michelets 1855 work, Histoire de France, the word Renaissance has also been extended to other historical and cultural movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century. The Renaissance was a movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism, however, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life. In addition, many Greek Christian works, including the Greek New Testament, were back from Byzantium to Western Europe. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe life as it really was. Others see more competition between artists and polymaths such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance. Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins. During the Renaissance, money and art went hand in hand, Artists depended entirely on patrons while the patrons needed money to foster artistic talent. Wealth was brought to Italy in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries by expanding trade into Asia, silver mining in Tyrol increased the flow of money. Luxuries from the Eastern world, brought home during the Crusades, increased the prosperity of Genoa, unlike with Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late antiquity, the study of ancient Greek texts was very limited in medieval Western Europe. One of the greatest achievements of Renaissance scholars was to bring this entire class of Greek cultural works back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity, Arab logicians had inherited Greek ideas after they had invaded and conquered Egypt and the Levant. Their translations and commentaries on these ideas worked their way through the Arab West into Spain and Sicily and this work of translation from Islamic culture, though largely unplanned and disorganized, constituted one of the greatest transmissions of ideas in history

7.
Light cavalry
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Light cavalry, often called Light Horse, comprises lightly armed and lightly armoured troops mounted on horses, as opposed to heavy cavalry, where the riders are heavily armored. Light cavalry was used infrequently by the Greeks and Romans, but were popular among the armies of Central Asia, the Arabs, Hungarians, Huns, Mongols, Turks, Parthians, and Persians were all adept light cavalrymen and horse archers. With the decline of feudalism and knighthood in Europe, light cavalry became more prominent in the armies of the continent, many were equipped with firearms, as their predecessors had been with bows. European examples of light cavalry included stradiots, hobelars, hussars, chasseurs à cheval, cossacks, chevau-légers, uhlans and some dragoons. Armies of the ancient Roman-Germanic wars made use of cavalry as patrolling squads, or armed scouts. During the Punic Wars, one of Carthages main advantages over Roman armies was its use of Numidian light cavalry. Partly because of this, the Roman general Scipio Africanus recruited his own cavalry from Sicily before his invasion of Tunisia during the Second Punic War, a variety of types of light cavalry were developed in medieval armies. Hobelar, Originally Irish, later popular in English and Scottish armies of the 14th and 15th centuries Koursores, the name derives from the Latin term cursarius meaning raider. Horse archers were used extensively in steppe warfare throughout Central Asia. Light cavalry played a key role in mounted scouting, escorting and skirmishing during the Napoleonic era, Light horse also served a function in major set-piece battles. While lacking the sheer power of heavy cavalry, light cavalry were still extremely effective against unprepared infantry and artillery. In the aftermath of battles, light cavalry were used to press a victors advantage or to screen retreating forces from further attack, hussars, distinctively dressed light cavalry of Hungarian origin. Locally recruited Hussar regiments were incorporated in most Napoleonic armies although by this period their functions, uhlans, originally Polish light cavalry armed with lances as their primary weapon. Locally recruited lancer regiments with this designation were later used by the Russian, Prussian and Austrian armies. The long reach of the lance made them a shock force against dispersed infantry. Dragoons, Originally a type of mounted infantry armed with muskets, dragoons had by the eighteenth century evolved into heavy. The latter performed the functions of light cavalry, although they might on occasion still undertake dismounted action using carbines. Sowars, An Indian horseman armed with a sword or light lance, Light horsemen with this designation had comprised the bulk of Mughul and other Indian cavalry forces during the 18th century

8.
Armoured cavalry
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Horse-mounted troops used various forms of armour for their own protection, and often added protective elements to their mounts tack. Horse armour included hardened leather in the ancient world, expanding to barding, from antiquity, light cavalry was generally more agile and more lightly protected than heavy cavalry, which used larger horses needed to carry heavier, more reinforced equipment and riders. Between the late 17th and mid-19th centuries, armoured cavalry referred to those regiments that retained the cuirass. The remaining two regular regiments were based in Palestine, and following the outbreak of war retained their horses until 1940 and 1941. Following mechanization, the few remaining distinctions of unit type became meaningless, U. S. Army armoured cavalry has the mission of reconnaissance and security. Unlike armoured and infantry units, U. S. Cavalry is organized in Regiments, Squadrons, and Troops which are equivalent to Brigades, Battalions, and Companies respectively. A regiment of armoured cavalry, such as the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam, the squadron normally consisted of a headquarters troop, three cavalry troops, a tank company, a 155-mm self-propelled howitzer battery, and an aviation troop. The three ground troops were a mixture of M48 Patton or M551 Sheridan tanks and M113 ACAVs, the aviation troop of the squadron was equipped with helicopters, consisting of UH-1 transports, OH-6 Cayuse scouts, OH-58 Kiowa scout/gunships, and AH-1 Cobra gunships. Armoured cavalry regiments operated in country for the Corps/Theater Commander, while the squadrons operated as the eyes, an Army brigade would only be authorized a cavalry troop, and not a whole cavalry squadron. According to Army doctrine, the cavalry would find the enemy and this process was known as the battle hand-off. The cavalry found them, now the heavies can deal with them, at point the cavalry is free to disengage. Security missions could be rear guard, flank guard, or advance guard, with the infantry, the advance guard would be called the point man. During the Vietnam War, it was the mission of armour to close with the enemy and defeat them using firepower, manoeuvre, with the US Infantry, the mission was the same, minus the shock power. Artillerys mission was to add firepower to the equation, the US Armored Cavalrys mission was to find the enemy and/or provide security for the Army, while having the means to destroy the enemy if becoming decisively engaged. From about January 1969 until the last mounted unit re-deployed from Vietnam in 1972 most armoured cavalry units were equipped with the M551 Sheridan armored airborne reconnaissance assault vehicle, armoured cavalry units can use hunter-killer teams. Scout vehicles and tanks can operate in concert, suited respectively as hunters and killers, Vietnam Studies, Department of the Army

9.
Uhlan
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Uhlans were Polish light cavalry armed with lances, sabres and pistols. The title was used by lancer regiments in the Russian, Prussian. Uhlans typically wore a jacket with a coloured panel at the front, a coloured sash. This cap or cavalry helmet was derived from a design of Polish cap, made more formal. Their lances usually had small, swallow-tailed flags just below the spearhead, in the Turkic Tatar language, it means, amongst other things, a brave warrior or young man. The Kalmyk/Oirat/Dzhungar cavalry made wide use of lances both in European as well as Central Asian wars. One of the members, Colonel Aleksander Ułan, was the commander of a Polish light cavalry regiment in the service of Polish-Saxon kings, August II Mocny. After Ułans death his regiment was nicknamed Ułanowe dzieci and Ułanowe wojsko, prior to 1764, all Polish-Lithuanian Tatar cavalry regiments in Saxon service were named Ułani. Once the Golden Horde Tatar families had settled in Lithuania in the late 14th century, they were required to military service for the Grand Duke of Lithuania. The Poles started incorporating much of their vocabulary and many of their traditions, along with their strategy. Lithuanian Tartars, mostly Muslim, served as part of the Royal armies during various battles of the late Middle Ages and their tasks were to conduct reconnaissance in advance of the heavier cavalry banners. The last Polish King, Stanisław August Poniatowski, had a Uhlan guard regiment simply known as the Royal Uhlans and it was disbanded in 1794 or 1795. The first Uhlan regiments were created in the early 18th century in Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1720s and their speed and mobility were key to their popularity. The Uhlan regiment formed by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1740, the regiment failed to distinguish itself favorably in the first of the Silesian Wars and was disbanded shortly afterwards. In 1745, Saxony, engaged in a union with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Shortly after, the Marechal de Saxe created a Polish Ulan regiment for the French king, King Stanisław August Poniatowski of Poland formed a regiment of royal guards equipped with lances, szablas, and pistols, each guardsman uniformed in kurta and czapka. This unit became the prototype for other units of the Polish cavalry. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Ulans officially had the status and traditions of the winged Polish hussars passed on to them in 1776, the Austrian empire also formed a Uhlan Regiment in 1784, composed primarily of Poles

10.
November Uprising
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The November Uprising, Polish–Russian War 1830–31, also known as the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when the young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress Polands military academy revolted, led by lieutenant Piotr Wysocki and they were soon joined by large segments of societies of Lithuania, Belarus, and the Right-bank Ukraine. Despite local successes, the uprising was crushed by a numerically superior Imperial Russian Army under Ivan Paskevich. Tsar Nicholas I decreed that henceforth Poland was a part of Russia, with Warsaw little more than a military garrison. After the Partitions of Poland, Poland ceased to exist as an independent political entity at the end of 1795, however, the Napoleonic Wars and Polish participation in the wars against Russia and Austria resulted in the creation the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807. The Congress of Vienna brought that states existence to an end in 1815, and essentially solidified the long-term division of Poland among Russia, Prussia, United with Russia through a personal union with the Tsar as King of Poland, the province could elect its own parliament and government. The kingdom had its own courts, army and treasury, over time, however, the freedoms granted to the Kingdom were gradually taken back and the constitution was progressively ignored by the Russian authorities. Alexander I of Russia never formally crowned himself as King of Poland, instead, in 1815, he appointed Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich as de facto viceroy, disregarding the constitution. Soon after the Congress of Vienna resolutions were signed, Russia ceased to respect them, in 1819 Alexander I abandoned liberty of the press in Congress Kingdom and introduced censorship. As a result, after 1825 sessions of Polish Sejm were conducted in secret, Nicholas I of Russia formally crowned himself as King of Poland on 24 May 1829 in Warsaw. He abolished Polish social and patriotic organizations, the opposition of the Kaliszanie faction. Although married to a Pole, he was considered as an enemy of the Polish nation. Also, his command over the Polish Army led to conflicts within the officer corps. These frictions led to various conspiracies throughout the country, most notably within the army, the final spark that ignited Warsaw was a Russian plan to use the Polish Army to suppress Frances July Revolution and the Belgian Revolution, in clear violation of the Polish constitution. The rebels managed to enter the Belweder, but Grand Duke Constantine had escaped in womens clothing, the rebels then turned to the main city arsenal, capturing it after a brief struggle. The following day, armed Polish civilians forced the Russian troops to north of Warsaw. This incident is called the Warsaw Uprising or the November Night. Taken by surprise by the unfolding of events during the night of 29 November

11.
Napoleonic Wars
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The wars resulted from the unresolved disputes associated with the French Revolution and the Revolutionary Wars, which had raged on for years before concluding with the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. Napoleon became the First Consul of France in 1799, then Emperor five years later, inheriting the political and military struggles of the Revolution, he created a state with stable finances, a strong central bureaucracy, and a well-trained army. The British frequently financed the European coalitions intended to thwart French ambitions, by 1805, they had managed to convince the Austrians and the Russians to wage another war against France. At sea, the Royal Navy destroyed a combined Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar in October 1805, Prussian worries about increasing French power led to the formation of the Fourth Coalition in 1806. France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July, although Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, it did not bring a lasting peace for Europe. Hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia, the Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support. The Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, the Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia. Unwilling to bear the consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse and retreat of the Grand Army along with the destruction of Russian lands. In 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France, a lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813. The Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814 and he was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power. However, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again, the Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June. The Congress of Vienna, which started in 1814 and concluded in 1815, established the new borders of Europe and laid out the terms, Napoleon seized power in 1799, creating a de facto military dictatorship. The Napoleonic Wars began with the War of the Third Coalition, Kagan argues that Britain was irritated in particular by Napoleons assertion of control over Switzerland. Furthermore, Britons felt insulted when Napoleon stated that their country deserved no voice in European affairs, for its part, Russia decided that the intervention in Switzerland indicated that Napoleon was not looking toward a peaceful resolution of his differences with the other European powers. The British quickly enforced a blockade of France to starve it of resources. Napoleon responded with economic embargoes against Britain, and sought to eliminate Britains Continental allies to break the coalitions arrayed against him, the so-called Continental System formed a league of armed neutrality to disrupt the blockade and enforce free trade with France

12.
Imperial Guard (Napoleon I)
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The Imperial Guard was originally a small group of elite soldiers of the French Army under the direct command of Napoleon I, but grew considerably over time. It acted as his bodyguard and tactical reserve, and he was careful of its use in battle, the Guard was divided into the staff, infantry, cavalry, and artillery regiments, as well as battalions of sappers and marines. The guard itself as a whole distinguished between the veterans and less experienced members by being separated into three sections, the Old Guard, Middle Guard and Young Guard. The Guard had its origin in the Consular Guard, created November 28,1799, by the union of the Guard of the Directory and the Grenadiers of the Legislature. These formations had for principal purpose the security of the executive and legislative branches of the French Republic and gathered a number of soldiers. One may question their utility, as they did not oppose Napoleons 18 Brumaire coup of 1799, the Consular Guard changed its name to the Imperial Guard on May 18,1804. Its headquarters were located at the Pentemont Abbey in Paris, Napoleon took great care of his Guard, particularly the Old Guard. The Grenadiers of the Old Guard were known to complain in the presence of the Emperor, giving them the nickname Les Grognards, the Guard received better pay, rations, quarters, and equipment, and all guardsmen ranked one grade higher than all non-Imperial Guard soldiers. Other French soldiers even referred to Napoleons Imperial Guard as the Immortals, the Guard played a major part in the climax of the Battle of Waterloo. It was thrown into the battle at the last minute to salvage a victory for Napoleon, completely outnumbered, it faced terrible fire from the British lines, and began to retreat. For the first time in its history the Middle Guard retreated without orders, at the sight of this, Napoleons army lost all hope of victory. The words La Garde meurt mais ne se rend pas. is generally attributed to General Pierre Cambronne and it has been suggested that this was in fact said by another general of the Guard, Claude-Etienne Michel, during their last stand at the Battle of Waterloo. The retort to a request to surrender may have been La Garde meurt, letters published in The Times in June 1932 record that they may have been said by General Michel. The Guard was composed of three echelons, the Old Guard comprised some of the finest soldiers in Europe, who had served Napoleon since his earliest campaigns. The Middle Guard was composed of his veterans from the 1805 to 1809 campaigns, in 1804 the Guard numbered eight thousand men. By the time of Napoleons invasion of Russia in 1812, it had swelled to just under 100,000 men, the Guard had its own artillery, infantry and cavalry components just like a normal Army corps. Created soon after the creation of the Guard itself, the General Staff by 1806 included the four Colonel-Generals of the four divisions of the Guard, all Marshals of France in field rank. It also included an Inspector of Reviews, a Commissioner of War,24 aides-de-camp, and other specialist officers, NCOs, and privates

13.
Battle of Aliwal
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The Battle of Aliwal was fought on 28 January 1846 between the British and the Sikhs. The British were led by Sir Harry Smith, while the Sikhs were led by Ranjodh Singh Majithia, the British won a victory which is sometimes regarded as the turning point of the First Anglo-Sikh War. The First Anglo-Sikh War began six years after the death of Ranjit Singh, the Punjab became increasingly disordered, while the British increased their military forces on their border with the Punjab. Eventually, the increasingly turbulent Sikh Khalsa Army was goaded into crossing the Sutlej River and invading British territory, the Sikh armies under Vizier Lal Singh and Commander in Chief Tej Singh eventually retreated, but the British army was shaken by its heavy losses. They did not renew hostilities for some weeks, and Hardinge sought to relieve Gough of his command, the Sikhs too were temporarily disheartened by the retreats ordered by their commanders. The British commanders detached a division under Sir Harry Smith to clear this threat to their rear, on 16 January 1846, Smith recovered two outposts which the Sikhs had seized at Fategarh and Dharmkot. Although Runjodh Singhs irregular cavalry had raided over an area and set fire to part of the British cantonments at Ludhiana. Harry Smith first intended to attack Runjodh Singhs army at Buddowal, on 21 January, as he left Buddowal, the Sikh irregular cavalry continually attacked his rearguards. They captured most of Smiths baggage animals, and cut down any straggling troops, nevertheless, Smith succeeded in reaching Ludhiana, with his troops exhausted. A brigade of troops from Delhi, including two Gurkha battalions, reinforced him, after resting his troops, Smith once again advanced to Buddowal. The Sikhs had withdrawn to Aliwal on the Sutlej, awaiting reinforcements, on 28 January, Smith advanced against them, cautiously at first. The Sikhs had occupied a position 4 miles long, which ran along a ridge between the villages of Aliwal, on the Sutlej, and Bhundri. The Sutlej ran close to their rear for the length of their line, making it difficult for them to manoeuvre. After the initial artillery salvoes, Smith determined that Aliwal was the Sikh weak point and he sent two of his four infantry brigades to capture the village, from where they could enfilade the Sikh centre. They seized the village, and began pressing forwards to threaten the fords across the Sutlej, as the Sikhs tried to swing back their left, pivoting on Bhundri, some of their cavalry tried to threaten the open British left flank. A British and Indian cavalry brigade, led by the 16th Lancers, the 16th Lancers then attacked a large body of Sikh infantry. These were battalions organised and trained in contemporary European fashion by Neapolitan mercenary and they formed square to receive cavalry, as most European armies did. Nevertheless, the 16th Lancers broke them, with heavy casualties, unlike most of the battles of both Anglo-Sikh Wars, when the Sikhs at Aliwal began to retreat, the retreat quickly turned into a disorderly rout across the fords

14.
First Anglo-Sikh War
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The First Anglo-Sikh War was fought between the Sikh Empire and the East India Company between 1845 and 1846. It resulted in partial subjugation of the Sikh kingdom and he hired American and European mercenary soldiers to train his artillery, and also incorporated contingents of Hindus and Muslims into his army. Aided by disunity among the Afghans, the Sikhs conquered the cities and provinces of Peshawar and Multan from them and this move had Sikh support, in return for the formal cessation of Peshawar to the Sikhs by Shuja Shah. The British finally withdrew from Afghanistan, and from Peshawar which they held as an advance base, almost immediately, his kingdom began to fall into disorder. Ranjits unpopular legitimate son, Kharak Singh, was removed from power within a few months and it was widely believed that he was poisoned. There were at the two major factions within the Punjab contending for power and influence, the Sikh Sindhanwalias and the Hindu Dogras. The Dogras succeeded in raising Sher Singh, the eldest illegitimate son of Ranjit Singh, the most prominent Sindhanwalias took refuge on British territory, but had many adherents among the Army of the Punjab. The army was expanding rapidly in the aftermath of Ranjit Singhs death, from 29,000 in 1839 to over 80,000 in 1845 as landlords and it proclaimed itself to be the embodiment of the Sikh nation. Maharajah Sher Singh was unable to meet the pay demands of the army, in September 1843 he was murdered by his cousin, an officer of the army, Ajit Singh Sindhanwalia. The Dogras took their revenge on those responsible, and Jind Kaur, Ranjit Singhs youngest widow, in 1845 he arranged the assassination of Peshaura Singh, who presented a threat to Duleep Singh. For this, he was called to account by the army, despite attempts to bribe the army he was butchered in September 1845 in the presence of Jind Kaur and Duleep Singh. Jind Kaur publicly vowed revenge against her brothers murderers, Lal Singh became vizier, and Tej Singh became commander of the army. Sikh historians have stressed that both men were prominent in the Dogra faction. Originally high caste Hindus from outside the Punjab, both had converted to Sikhism in 1818, in 1843, they conquered and annexed Sindh, to the south of the Punjab, in a move which many British people regarded as cynical and ignoble. This did not gain the British any respect in the Punjab, the actions and attitudes of the British, under Governor General Lord Ellenborough and his successor, Sir Henry Hardinge, are disputed. By most British accounts, their concern was that the Sikh army. The kingdom was also renowned for being the wealthiest, the Koh-i-Noor being, nevertheless, the unconcealed and seemingly aggressive British military build-up at the borders had the effect of increasing tension within the Punjab and the Sikh Army. After mutual demands and accusations between the Sikh Durbar and the East India Company, diplomatic relations were broken, an East India Company army began marching towards Ferozepur, where a division was already stationed

15.
Battle of Waterloo
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The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday,18 June 1815, near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Upon Napoleons return to power in March 1815, many states that had opposed him formed the Seventh Coalition, Wellington and Blüchers armies were cantoned close to the north-eastern border of France. Napoleon chose to attack them in the hope of destroying them before they could join in an invasion of France with other members of the coalition. Despite holding his ground at Quatre Bras, the defeat of the Prussians forced Wellington to withdraw to Waterloo, Napoleon sent a third of his forces to pursue the Prussians, who had withdrawn parallel to Wellington. This resulted in the separate and simultaneous Battle of Wavre with the Prussian rear-guard, upon learning that the Prussian army was able to support him, Wellington decided to offer battle on the Mont-Saint-Jean escarpment, across the Brussels road. Here he withstood repeated attacks by the French throughout the afternoon, in the evening Napoleon committed his last reserves to a desperate final attack, which was narrowly beaten back. With the Prussians breaking through on the French right flank, Wellingtons Anglo-allied army counter-attacked in the centre, Waterloo was the decisive engagement of the Waterloo Campaign and Napoleons last. According to Wellington, the battle was the thing you ever saw in your life. Napoleon abdicated four days later, and on 7 July coalition forces entered Paris, the defeat at Waterloo ended Napoleons rule as Emperor of the French, and marked the end of his Hundred Days return from exile. This ended the First French Empire, and set a chronological milestone between serial European wars and decades of relative peace, the battlefield is located in the municipalities of Braine-lAlleud and Lasne, about 15 kilometres south of Brussels, and about 2 kilometres from the town of Waterloo. The site of the battlefield today is dominated by a large monument, as this mound was constructed from earth taken from the battlefield itself, the contemporary topography of the battlefield near the mound has not been preserved. On 13 March 1815, six days before Napoleon reached Paris, four days later, the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria, and Prussia mobilised armies to defeat Napoleon. Crucially, this would have bought him time to recruit and train more men before turning his armies against the Austrians and Russians, an additional consideration for Napoleon was that a French victory might cause French speaking sympathisers in Belgium to launch a friendly revolution. Wellingtons initial dispositions were intended to counter the threat of Napoleon enveloping the Coalition armies by moving through Mons to the south-west of Brussels and this would have pushed Wellington closer to Blücher, but may have cut Wellingtons communications with his base at Ostend. In order to delay Wellingtons deployment, Napoleon spread false intelligence which suggested that Wellingtons supply chain from the ports would be cut. By June, Napoleon had raised a total strength of about 300,000 men. The force at his disposal at Waterloo was less than one third that size, Napoleon divided his army into a left wing commanded by Marshal Ney, a right wing commanded by Marshal Grouchy and a reserve under his command. Crossing the frontier near Charleroi before dawn on 15 June, the French rapidly overran Coalition outposts and he hoped this would prevent them from combining, and he would be able to destroy first the Prussians army, then Wellingtons

16.
Alessandro Barbero
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Alessandro Barbero is an Italian historian, novelist and essayist. He attended the University of Turin, where he studied literature and he won the 1996 Strega Prize, Italys most distinguished literary award, for Bella vita e guerre altrui di Mr. Pyle gentiluomo. Fiutando i futuri supplizi, has translated into English as The Anonymous Novel. The Anonymous Novel concerns the past-that-never-passes and the future that in 1988 was impending and has now arrived, allan Massie wrote in The Scotsman, If you have any feeling for Russia or for the art of the novel, then read this one. Barbero is the author of The Battle, a highly regarded account of the Battle of Waterloo, other histories he has written which have been translated into English include The Day of the Barbarians, the story of the Battle of Adrianople, and Charlemagne, Father of a Continent. He is the editor of Storia dEuropa e del Mediterraneo, which is published by Salerno Editore, in 2005, the Republic of France awarded Barbero with the title of Chevalier de lordre des Arts et des Lettres. Bella vita e guerre altrui di Mr. Pyle gentiluomo Romanzo russo, fiutando i futuri supplizi The Anonymous Novel. Sensing the Future Torments, Vagabond Voices, alba, Scotland Lultima rosa di Lautrec, Mondadori Poeta al comando, Mondadori Charlemagne, Father of a continent, Taylor & Francis US

17.
Californio
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The Californio era was from the first Spanish presence established by the Portolá expedition in 1769 until the regions cession to the United States of America in 1848. Non-Spanish-speaking immigrants who 1) became naturalized Mexican citizens, 2) married Californios, such residents, by these actions, became eligible to own land and receive rancho grants from the Mexican government. Most such grants occurred after mission secularization in the 1830s, an even looser definition may include descendants of Californios, especially those who married other Californio descendants. The much larger population of non-Spanish-speaking indigenous peoples of California who lived in the prior to. Many Californios, however, were the California-born children of non-Spanish speakers who married Spanish speakers, such spouses usually also converted to the Catholic faith and, after Mexico became independent of Spain in 1821, often became naturalized Mexican citizens. The military, religious and civil components of pre-1848 Californio society were embodied in the presidios, missions. After secularization, the Mexican authorities divided most of the lands into new ranchos. The Spanish colonial and later Mexican national governments encouraged settlers from the northern and western provinces of Mexico, People from other parts of Latin America did settle in California. However, only a few official colonization efforts were ever undertaken—notably the second expedition of Juan Bautista de Anza, children of those few early settlers and retired soldiers became the first Californios. Sporadic colonization efforts continued under Mexican rule, including the Hijar-Padres group of 1834, One genealogist estimated that, by 2004, between 300,000 and 500,000 Californians were descendants of Californios. Alta California was nominally controlled by a national-government appointed governor, the governors of California were at first appointed by the Viceroy, and after 1821 by the approximate 40 Mexican Presidents from 1821 to 1846. The costs of the minimum Alta California government were paid by means of a roughly 40–100% import tariff collected at the entry port of Monterey. The other center of Spanish power in Alta California was the Franciscan friars who, as heads of the 21 missions, none of the Franciscan friars were Californios, however, and their influence rapidly waned after the secularization of the missions in the 1830s. Governors had little support from far-away Mexico to deal with Alta Californians. Mexico-born governor Manuel Victoria was forced to flee in 1831, after losing a fight against an uprising at the Battle of Cahuenga Pass. As Californios matured to adulthood and increasingly assumed positions of power in the Alta California government, several times, Californio leaders attempted to break away from Mexico, most notably Juan Bautista Alvarado in 1836. Southern regional leaders, led by Pio Pico, made attempts to relocate the capital from Monterey to the more populated Los Angeles. Alvarado recruited a company of Tennessean riflemen, many of them former trappers who had settled in the Monterey Bay area, the company was led by another American, Isaac Graham, the Americans refused to fight against fellow Americans

18.
Sabre
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The sabre is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the Early Modern and Napoleonic periods. Originally associated Central-Eastern European cavalry such as the Hussars, the sabre became widespread in Western Europe in the Thirty Years War, lighter sabres also became popular with infantry of the late 17th century. In the 19th century, models with less curving blades became common and were used by heavy cavalry. The last sabre issued to US cavalry was the Patton saber of 1913, Szabla wz.34 was the last sabre issued to the Polish cavalry, in 1934. English sabre is recorded from the 1670s, as a loan from French, where the sabre is an alteration of sable. The German word is on record from the 15th century, loaned from Polish szabla, the spread of the Hungarian word to neighboring European languages took place in the context of the Ottoman wars in Europe of the 15th to 17th centuries. The spelling saber becomes common in American English in the half of the 19th century. The origin of the Hungarian word is unclear and it may itself be a loan from South Slavic, from a Common Slavic *sablja, which would ultimately derives from a Turkic source. These oldest sabres had a curve, short, down-turned quillons, the grip facing the opposite direction to the blade. The adoption of the term is connected to the employment of Hungarian Hussar cavalry by Western armies at the time, Hungarian hussars were employed as light cavalry, with the role of harassing enemy skirmishers, overrunning artillery positions, and pursuing fleeing troops. In the late 17th and 18th centuries, many Hungarian hussars fled to other Central and Western European countries, the Hungarian term szablya is ultimately traced to the Northwestern Turkic selebe, with contamination from the Hungarian verb szab to cut. The original type of sabre, or Polish szabla, was used as a cavalry weapon, the Karabela was a type of szabla popular in the late 17th century, worn by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth nobility class, the Szlachta. While designed as a weapon, it also came to replace various types of straight-bladed swords used by infantry. The Swiss sabre originates as a sword with a single-edged blade in the early 16th century. In the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth a specific type of melee weapon. Richly decorated sabres were popular among the Polish nobility, who considered it to be one of the most important pieces of traditional attire. With time, the design of the sabre greatly evolved in the Commonwealth and gave birth to a variety of sabre-like weapons, intended for many tasks. The sabre saw extensive use in the early 19th century, particularly in the Napoleonic Wars

19.
Turtle shell
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It is constructed of modified bony elements such as the ribs, parts of the pelvis and other bones found in most reptiles. The bone of the consists of both skeletal and dermal bone, showing that the complete enclosure of the shell probably evolved by including dermal armor into the rib cage. Hence understanding the structure of the shell in living species gives us comparable material with fossils, the turtle shell is made up of numerous bony elements, generally named after similar bones in other vertebrates, and a series of keratinous scutes which are also uniquely named. Some of those bones that make the top of the shell, carapace, the ventral surface is called the plastron. These are joined by a called the bridge. The actual suture between the bridge and the plastron is called the anterior bridge strut, in Pleurodires the posterior pelvis is also part of the carapace, fully fused with it. This is not the case in Cryptodires which have a floating pelvis, the anterior bridge strut and posterior bridge strut are part of the plastron, on the carapace are the sutures into which they insert, known as the Bridge carapace suture. The bones of the shell are named for standard vertebrate elements, as such the carapace is made up of 8 pleurals on each side, these are a combination of the ribs and fused dermal bone. Outside of this at the anterior of the shell is the single nuchal bone, at the posterior of the shell is the pygal bone and in front of this nested behind the eighth pleurals is the suprapygal. Between each of the pleurals are a series of neural bones, beneath the neural bone is the Neural arch which forms the upper half of the encasement for the spinal chord. Below this the rest of the vertebral column, some species of turtles have some extra bones called mesoplastra, which are located between the carapace and plastron in the bridge area. They are present in most Pelomedusid turtles, the skeletal elements of the plastron are also largely in pairs. Anteriorly there are two epiplastra, with the hyoplastra behind them and these make up the front half of the plastron and the hyoplastron contains the anterior bridge strut. The posterior half is made up of two hypoplastra and the rear is a pair of xiphiplastra, overlying the boney elements are a series of scutes, which are made of keratin and are a lot like horn or nail tissue. In the center of the carapace are 5 vertebral scutes and out from these are 4 pairs of costal scutes, around the edge of the shell are 12 pairs of marginal scutes. All these scutes are aligned so that for the most part the sutures between the bones are in the middle of the scutes above. At the anterior of the shell there may be a cervical scute however the presence or absence of this scute is highly variable, on the plastron there are two gular scutes at the front, followed by a pair of pectorals, then abdominals, femorals and lastly anals. A particular variation is the Pleurodiran turtles have an intergular scute between the gulars at the front, giving them a total of 13 plastral scutes, compared to the 12 in all Cryptodiran turtles

20.
Czapka
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Czapka is a Polish and Belarusian generic word for a cap. This headdress developed initially as a variant of a shako. In its early, compact form from 1784 onwards the czapka was introduced by Austrian uhlans, the Grand Duchy of Warsaw used them for infantry and artillery units, but otherwise they were only ever used for uhlan units. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars the czapka continued to be worn by uhlans in Germany and Austria, as well as in France by Line-Regiment Lancers and later the Imperial Guard of Napoleon III. Lancer regiments in the British Army continued to wear czapki for full dress until 1939, along with the traditional double-breasted plastron-fronted lancer jacket, it is also still worn by the band of the Royal Yeomanry. With the end of the Second French Empire the lancer regiments, the German or Austro-Hungarian czapka consisted of a body of pressed blackened leather, known as the cap and only given a shield on the front. This ended halfway down the back of the head and only protected the front of the head, instead of a peak, the front was centred on the front point of a four-cornered lid on a stem on top of the helmet. On the left front edge of this lid was attached the National or cockade, there was also a sleeve for the insertion of a brush plume. On the front of the body was a metal emblem, in German parade examples, a Paraderabatte in the regimental colours was also worn on this type of helmet. In Austro-Hungary they were lined in the regimental colour, a leather chin strap on chains was attached, worn up on the front of the helmet when dismounted. In Austro-Hungary there was also the Kommode-Tschapka, a lighter and more convenient version for service for officers, without the emblem on the front. The Portuguese cavalry included lancer regiments until the overthrow of the Monarchy in 1910, spanish lancers wore the Polish style headdress from 1833 until after 1868 when a nickel-plated helmet with spike was adopted. In 1914 czapki were still worn in dress by all Imperial German, Austro-Hungarian, British. They varied in detail but all had the four sided top. Plumes were common on parade and in several of the named the different regiments were distinguished by the colour of the top or sides. Belgian, Austro-Hungarian and German lancers wore their czapki on active service during the weeks of the war. In the case of the Austro-Hungarian Uhlans, since there were not enough of these coverings, German and Austro-Hungarian uhlans wore the czapka during the First World War, though it ceased to be worn for field uniform after the adoption of the Stahlhelm steel helmet in 1916. During the twentieth century the czapka became one of the symbols of Polish national independence, after World War I, the new Polish Army adopted a four-pointed form as its standard issue national headdress in the form of a rogatywka

21.
Flag
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A flag is a piece of fabric with a distinctive design that is used as a symbol, as a signaling device, or as decoration. National flags are patriotic symbols with varied wide-ranging interpretations, often including strong military associations due to their original, flags are also used in messaging, advertising, or for other decorative purposes. The study of flags is known as vexillology, from the Latin word vexillum, due to the use of flags by military units, flag is also used as the name of some military units. A flag is equivalent to a brigade in Arab countries, and in Spain, in antiquity, field signs or standards were used in warfare that can be categorized as vexilloid or flag-like. During the High Middle Ages flags came to be used primarily as a device in battle. Already during the medieval period, and increasingly during the Late Middle Ages. Regimental flags for individual units became commonplace during the Early Modern period, flags also became the preferred means of communications at sea, resulting in various systems of flag signals, see, International maritime signal flags. One of the most popular uses of a flag is to symbolize a nation or country, some national flags have been particularly inspirational to other nations, countries, or subnational entities in the design of their own flags. Some prominent examples include, The flag of Denmark, the Dannebrog, is attested in 1478, the flag of the Netherlands is the oldest tricolour. Its three colours of red, white and blue go back to Charlemagnes time, the 9th century, the coastal region of what today is the Netherlands was then known for its cloth in these colours. Maps from the early 16th century already put flags in these colours next to this region, a century before that, during the 15th century, the three colours were mentioned as the coastal signals for this area, with the three bands straight or diagonal, single or doubled. As state flag it first appeared around 1572 as the Princes Flag in orange–white–blue, soon the more famous red–white–blue began appearing, becoming the prevalent version from around 1630. Orange made a comeback during the war of the late 18th century. During World War II the pro-Nazi NSB used it, any symbolism has been added later to the three colours, although the orange comes from the House of Orange-Nassau. This use of orange comes from Nassau, which today uses orange-blue, not from Orange, however, the usual way to show the link with the House of Orange-Nassau is the orange pennant above the red-white-blue. It is said that the Dutch Tricolour has inspired many flags but most notably those of Russia, New York City, the national flag of France was designed in 1794. As a forerunner of revolution, Frances tricolour flag style has been adopted by other nations, examples, Italy, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ireland, Haiti, Romania and Mexico. The Union Flag of the United Kingdom is the most commonly used, british colonies typically flew a flag based on one of the ensigns based on this flag, and many former colonies have retained the design to acknowledge their cultural history

22.
Polish language
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Polish is a West Slavic language spoken primarily in Poland and is the native language of the Poles. It belongs to the Lechitic subgroup of the West Slavic languages, Polish is the official language of Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries. It is one of the languages of the European Union. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet, which has 9 additions to the letters of the basic Latin script, Polish is closely related to Kashubian, Silesian, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, Czech and Slovak. It is also the second most widely spoken Slavic language, after Russian, in history, Polish is known to be an important language, both diplomatically and academically in Central and Eastern Europe. Today, Polish is spoken by over 38.5 million people as their first language in Poland. It is also spoken as a language in western parts of Belarus and Ukraine, west and central Lithuania, as well as the northern parts of the Czech Republic. There are 55 million Polish language speakers around the world, Polish began to emerge as a distinct language around the 10th century, the process largely triggered by the establishment and development of the Polish state. With Christianity, Poland also adopted the Latin alphabet, which made it possible to write down Polish, the precursor to modern Polish is the Old Polish language. Ultimately, Polish is thought to descend from the unattested Proto-Slavic language, Poland is the most linguistically homogeneous European country, nearly 97% of Polands citizens declare Polish as their first language. Elsewhere, Poles constitute large minorities in Lithuania, Belarus, Polish is the most widely used minority language in Lithuanias Vilnius County and is found elsewhere in southeastern Lithuania. There are significant numbers of Polish speakers among Polish emigrants and their descendants in many other countries, in the United States, Polish Americans number more than 11 million but most of them cannot speak Polish fluently. The largest concentrations of Polish speakers reported in the census were found in three states, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey. Enough people in these areas speak Polish that PNC Financial Services offer services available in Polish at all of their machines in addition to English and Spanish. According to the 2011 census there are now over 500,000 people in England, in Canada, there is a significant Polish Canadian population, There are 242,885 speakers of Polish according to the 2006 census, with a particular concentration in Toronto and Montreal. The geographical distribution of the Polish language was affected by the territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II. Poles settled in the Recovered Territories in the west and north and this tendency toward a homogeneity also stems from the vertically integrated nature of the authoritarian Polish Peoples Republic. The inhabitants of different regions of Poland still speak standard Polish somewhat differently, first-language speakers of Polish have no trouble understanding each other, and non-native speakers may have difficulty distinguishing regional variations

23.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form

24.
British Army
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The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom. As of 2017 the British Army comprises just over 80,000 trained Regular, or full-time, personnel and just over 26,500 trained Reserve, or part-time personnel. Therefore, the UK Parliament approves the continued existence of the Army by passing an Armed Forces Act at least once every five years, day to day the Army comes under administration of the Ministry of Defence and is commanded by the Chief of the General Staff. Repeatedly emerging victorious from these decisive wars allowed Britain to influence world events with its policies and establish itself as one of the leading military. In 1660 the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were restored under Charles II, Charles favoured the foundation of a new army under royal control and began work towards its establishment by August 1660. The Royal Scots Army and the Irish Army were financed by the Parliament of Scotland, the order of seniority of the most senior line regiments in the British Army is based on the order of seniority in the English army. At that time there was only one English regiment of dragoons, after William and Marys accession to the throne, England involved itself in the War of the Grand Alliance, primarily to prevent a French invasion restoring Marys father, James II. Spain, in the two centuries, had been the dominant global power, and the chief threat to Englands early transatlantic ambitions. The territorial ambitions of the French, however, led to the War of the Spanish Succession and the Napoleonic Wars. From the time of the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, Great Britain was the naval power. As had its predecessor, the English Army, the British Army fought the Kingdoms of Spain, France, and the Netherlands for supremacy in North America and the West Indies. With native and provincial assistance, the Army conquered New France in the North American theatre of the Seven Years War, the British Army suffered defeat in the American War of Independence, losing the Thirteen Colonies but holding on to Canada. The British Army was heavily involved in the Napoleonic Wars and served in campaigns across Europe. The war between the British and the First French Empire of Napoleon Bonaparte stretched around the world and at its peak, in 1813, the regular army contained over 250,000 men. A Coalition of Anglo-Dutch and Prussian Armies under the Duke of Wellington, the English had been involved, both politically and militarily, in Ireland since being given the Lordship of Ireland by the Pope in 1171. The campaign of the English republican Protector, Oliver Cromwell, involved uncompromising treatment of the Irish towns that had supported the Royalists during the English Civil War, the English Army stayed in Ireland primarily to suppress numerous Irish revolts and campaigns for independence. Having learnt from their experience in America, the British government sought a political solution, the British Army found itself fighting Irish rebels, both Protestant and Catholic, primarily in Ulster and Leinster in the 1798 rebellion. The Haldane Reforms of 1907 formally created the Territorial Force as the Armys volunteer reserve component by merging and reorganising the Volunteer Force, Militia, Great Britains dominance of the world had been challenged by numerous other powers, in the 20th century, most notably Germany

25.
Indian Army
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The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India serves as the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and it is commanded by the Chief of Army Staff, two officers have been conferred with the rank of field marshal, a five-star rank, which is a ceremonial position of great honour. It conducts humanitarian rescue operations during calamities and other disturbances, like Operation Surya Hope. It is a component of national power alongside the Indian Navy. The army has been involved in four wars with neighbouring Pakistan, other major operations undertaken by the army include Operation Vijay, Operation Meghdoot and Operation Cactus. The Indian Army has a system, but is operationally and geographically divided into seven commands. It is a force and comprises more than 80% of the countrys active defence personnel. It is the 2nd largest standing army in the world, with 1,200,255 active troops and 990,960 reserve troops, a Military Department was created within the Government of the East India Company at Kolkata in the year 1776. Its main function was to sift and record orders relating to the Army that were issued by various Departments of the East India Company for the territories under its control. With the Charter Act of 1833, the Secretariat of the Government of the East India Company was reorganised into four Departments, including a Military Department. The army in the Presidencies of Bengal, Bombay & Madras functioned as respective Presidency Army until April 1895, for administrative convenience, it was divided into four commands at that point of time, namely Punjab, Bengal, Madras and Bombay. The British Indian Army was a force for the primacy of the British Empire both in India and across the world. In the 20th century, the Indian Army was an adjunct to the British forces in both the world wars. 1.3 million Indian soldiers served in World War I for the Allies, in 1915 there was a mutiny by Indian soldiers in Singapore. After the United Kingdom made promises of self-governance to the Indian National Congress in return for its support, Britain reneged on its promises after the war, following which the Indian Independence movement gained strength. Indian officers given a Kings commission after passing out were posted to one of the eight selected for Indianisation. In World War II Indian soldiers fought for the Allies, in 1939, British officials had no plan for expansion and training of Indian forces, which comprised about 130,000 men. Their mission was internal security and defence against a possible Soviet threat through Afghanistan, as the war progressed, the size and role of the Indian Army expanded dramatically, and troops were sent to battle fronts as soon as possible

26.
French Army
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The French Army, officially the Land Army is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. Along with the French Air Force, the French Navy and the National Gendarmerie, the current Chief of Staff of the French Army is General Jean-Pierre Bosser, a direct subordinate of the Chief of the Defence Staff. All soldiers are considered professionals following the suspension of conscription, voted in parliament in 1997, as of 2014, the French Army employed 111,628 personnel. In addition, the element of the French Army consisted of 15,453 personnel of the Operational Reserve. The Kings of France needed reliable troops during and after the Hundred Years War and these units of troops were raised by issuing ordonnances to govern their length of service, composition and payment. These Compagnies dordonnance formed the core of the Gendarme Cavalry into the sixteenth century, stationed throughout France and summoned into larger armies as needed. There was also made for Francs-archers units of bowmen and foot soldiers raised from the non-noble classes. The bulk of the infantry for warfare was still provided by urban or provincial militias, raised from an area or city to fight locally and named for their recruiting grounds. Gradually these units became more permanent, and in 1480s Swiss instructors were recruited and these men would be paid and contracted and receive training. Henry II further regularised the French army by forming standing Infantry regiments to replace the Militia structure, the first of these the Régiments de Picardie, Piémont, Navarre and Champagne were called the Les Vieux Corps. It was normal policy to disband regiments after a war was over as a cost saving measure with the Vieux Corps and the Kings own Household Troops the Maison du Roi being the only survivors. Regiments could be raised directly by the King and so called after the region in which they were raised, or by the nobility and so called after the noble or his appointed colonel. In 1684 there was a reorganisation of the French infantry and again in 1701 to fit in with Louis XIVs plans. This reshuffle created many of the regiments of the French Army and standardised their equipment. The army of the Sun King tended to wear coats with coloured linings. There were exceptions and the troops, recruited from outside France. In addition to these regiments of the line the Maison du Roi provided several elite units, the Swiss Guards, French Guards, the revolution split the army with the main mass losing most of its officers to aristocratic flight or guillotine and becoming demoralised and ineffective. The French Guard joined the revolt and the Swiss Guards were massacred during the storming of the Tuileries palace, under Napoleon I, the French Army conquered most of Europe during the Napoleonic Wars

27.
German Army (German Empire)
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The Imperial German Army was the name given to the combined land and air forces of the German Empire. The term Deutsches Heer is also used for the modern German Army, the German Army was formed after the unification of Germany under Prussian leadership in 1871 and dissolved in 1919, after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I. When operating together, the units were known as the Federal Army, Prussia formed the North German Confederation and the treaty provided for the maintenance of a Federal Army and a Federal Navy. Further laws on military duty also used these terms, through these conventions and the 1871 Constitution of the German Empire, an Army of the Realm was created. The contingents of the Bavarian, Saxon and Württemberg kingdoms remained semi-autonomous, the Constitution of the German Empire, dated April 16,1871, changed references in the North German Constitution from Federal Army to either Army of the Realm or German Army. After 1871, the armies of the four kingdoms remained relatively distinct. German Army was used in legal documents, such as the Military Penal Code. Württemberg and Saxon units were numbered according to the Prussian system, the commander of the Imperial German Army, less the Bavarian contingent, was the Kaiser. He was assisted by a Military Cabinet and exercised control through the Prussian Ministry of War, the Chief of the General Staff became the Kaisers main military advisor and the most powerful military figure in the Empire. Bavaria kept its own Ministry of War and General Staff, saxony also maintained its own Ministry of War and the Ministry of War of Württemberg also continued to exist. Command of the Prussian Army had been reformed in the wake of the defeats suffered by Prussia in the Napoleonic Wars, the General Staff system, that sought to institutionalize military excellence, was the main result. It provided planning and organizational work during peacetime and wartime, the Prussian General Staff, proven in battle in the Wars of Unification, became the German General Staff upon formation of the German Empire, given Prussias leading role in the German Army. During wartime, the staff of the Army inspectorates formed field army commands, during World War I, a higher command level, the army group, was created. Each army group controlled several field armies, Germany was divided into army inspectorates, each of which oversaw three or four corps. There were five in 1871, with three more added between 1907 and 1913, the corps consisted of two or more divisions and various support troops, covering a geographical area. The corps was responsible for maintaining the reserves and Landwehr in the corps area. By 1914, there were 21 corps areas under Prussian jurisdiction, besides the regional corps, there was also a Guard Corps, which controlled the elite Prussian Guard units. A corps usually included an infantry battalion, a heavy artillery battalion, an engineer battalion, a telegraph battalion

28.
Italian Army
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The Italian Army is the land defence force of the Italian Armed Forces of the Italian Republic. The armys history dates back to the unification of Italy in the 1850s and 1860s, during the Cold War the army prepared itself to defend against a Warsaw Pact invasion from the east. Since the end of the Cold War the army has seen extensive peacekeeping service and combat in Afghanistan, the headquarters of the Army General Staff are located in Rome, at the back of the Presidential Palace. The army is a force of active-duty personnel, numbering 99,042 personnel in 2016. The Italian Army originated as the Royal Army which dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy following the seizure of the Papal States and the unification of Italy. In 1861, under the leadership of Giuseppe Garibaldi, Victor Emmanuel II of the House of Savoy was invited to take the throne of the independent kingdom. Italian expeditions were dispatched to China during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, the Italian Royal Armys first real taste of modern warfare was during World War I. Most of the actions were fought in northern Italy and the Royal Army suffered many casualties, Italian discipline was also harsher, with punishments for infractions of duty of a severity not known in the German, French, and British armies. On paper, the Royal Army was one of the largest ground forces in World War II, though in reality it could not field the numbers claimed, due to their generally smaller size, many Italian divisions were reinforced by an Assault Group of two battalions of Blackshirts. Reports of Italian military prowess in the Second World War were, almost always and this perception was the result of disastrous Italian offensives against Egypt and the performance of the army in the Greco-Italian War. Both campaigns were ill-prepared and executed inadequately, Italian medium M11, M13, M14 and M15 tanks were at a marked disadvantage against the comparatively heavily armed American Sherman tanks, for example. There were too few weapons, obsolete anti-tank guns. When the Soviet offensive Operation Saturn began on December 12,1942 the Italian 8th Army was quickly crushed, in North Africa, the Italian 132 Armored Division Ariete and the 185 Airborne Division Folgore fought to total annihilation at the Second Battle of El Alamein. Although the battle was lost, the resistance of the Italian soldiers at the Battle of Keren in East Africa is still commemorated today by the Italian military. After the Axis defeat in Tunisia the morale of the Italian troops dropped, the sagging morale led to the overthrow of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini by King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy 15 days later. The Italian Co-Belligerent Army was the army of the Italian royalist forces fighting on the side of the Allies in southern Italy after the Allied armistice with Italy in September 1943. The Italian soldiers fighting in this no longer fought for Benito Mussolini as their allegiance was to King Victor Emmanuel and to Marshal of Italy Pietro Badoglio. The kingdom was replaced by a Republic in 1946 and the Royal Army changed its name to become the Italian Army, initially five infantry divisions were active, including the newly renamed Infantry Division Friuli

29.
Portuguese Army
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The Portuguese Army is the land component of the Armed Forces of Portugal and is also its largest branch. It is charged with the defence of Portugal, in co-operation with other branches of the Armed Forces and it is one of the oldest armies in the world, with its origins going back to the 12th century. The CEME is the officer in the Army with the rank of General. Presently, the Portuguese Army is a professional force made of career personnel. Until the early 1990s, conscripts constituted the bulk of the Army personnel, with a cadre of career officers, conscription was however gradually reduced since the middle 1990s, until being finally formally abolished in 2004. As 2014, the Portuguese Army employed 5,667 career personnel and 10,444 volunteers, of the total military personnel,2,669 were officers,3,917 were NCOs and 9,595 were other ranks. Further, the Army also included 1,897 civilian employees, the national deployed forces are units or teams deployed by the Portuguese Armed Forces in foreign missions, mostly in the scope of NATO, the United Nations or the European Union. Finally, under the Treaty of Zamora, signed on the 5 October 1143, at the same time, the Portuguese forces were also involved in the Reconquista, successively advancing south to reconquer territories occupied by the Moors. The Portuguese part of the Reconquista came to an end in 1249, in the 14th century, the Portuguese troops defeated Castilian invaders, obtaining a definitive victory in the Battle of Aljubarrota in 1385. With the independence guaranteed, Portugal then began its overseas expansion. These contingents were collectively referred as the Hoste, which was under the command of the Monarch. Since the earlier beginning, the Monarch often delegated his command in the Alferes-Mor, organization of the Portuguese military developed during the Middle Ages, leading to a more complex structure and the consequent creation of new command offices. Thus, in 1383, the office of Constable of Portugal was created, the Constable was assisted by the Marshal of Portugal. Other Portuguese important military offices that existed were those of fronteiro-mor, of Coudel-Mor, the Anadel-Mor, by himself, superintended the commanders of the kings crossbowmen, of the horse crossbowmen and of the municipal crossbowmen. The role of the forces was more important in the campaigns of Morocco. In Europe, Portuguese ground forces engaged in the War of the Castilian Succession, after a number of previous failed attempts, King Sebastian established the foundations of a standing army, with the creation of the Ordenanças in 1570. It was organized into 250-man companies, each headed by a captain, assisted by an alferes, the several Ordenanças companies of a city, town or municipality were grouped into captaincies, each headed by a captain-major, assisted by a sergeant-major. The Ordenanças system would cover all available manpower of Portugal

30.
Spanish Army
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The Spanish Army is the terrestrial army of the Spanish Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is one of the oldest active armies - dating back to the late 15th century, the Spanish army has existed continuously since the reign of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. During the 16th century, Habsburg Spain saw a growth in its military power. The Italian Wars resulted in an ultimate Spanish victory and hegemony in northern Italy by expelling the French, during the 16th century this formation evolved into the tercio infantry formation. The new formation and battle tactics were developed because of Spains inability to field sufficient cavalry forces to face the heavy French cavalry, with such numbers involved, Spain had trouble funding the war effort on so many fronts. The non-payment of troops led to many mutinies and events such as the Sack of Antwerp, the Thirty Years War drew in Spain alongside most other European states. Nevertheless, Spanish armies continued to win battles and sieges throughout this period across large swathes of Europe. French entry into the war in 1635 put additional pressure on Spain, by the signing of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, Spain was forced to accept the independence of the Dutch Republic. In the second half of the century, a reduced and increasingly neglected Spanish army became infamous for being poorly equipped. Spain remained an important naval and military power, depending on sea lanes stretching from Spain through the Caribbean and South America, and westwards towards Manila. The Army was reorganised on the French model and in 1704 the old Tercios were transformed into Regiments, the first modern military school was created in Segovia in 1764. Finally, in 1768 King Charles III sanctioned the Royal Ordinances for the Regime, Discipline, Subordination and Service in his Armies, in the late 18th century, Bourbon-ruled Spain had an alliance with Bourbon-ruled France, and therefore did not have to fear a land war. Its only serious enemy was Britain, which had a powerful Royal Navy, when the French Revolution overthrew the Bourbons, a land war with France became a danger which the king tried to avoid. The officer corps was selected primarily on the basis of royal patronage, about a third of the junior officers have been promoted from the ranks, and they did have talent, but they had few opportunities for promotion or leadership. The rank-and-file were poorly trained peasants, elite units included foreign regiments of Irishmen, Italians, Swiss, and Walloons, in addition to elite artillery and engineering units. Equipment was old-fashioned and in disrepair, the army lacked its own horses, oxen and mules for transportation, so these auxiliaries were operated by civilians, who might run away if conditions looked bad. In combat, small units fought well, but their tactics were hardly of use against the Napoleonic forces. When war broke out with France in 1808, the army was deeply unpopular, leading generals were assassinated, and the army proved incompetent to handle command-and-control

31.
Imperial Japanese Army
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The Imperial Japanese Army or IJA, literally Army of the Greater Japanese Empire, was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan, from 1871 to 1945. Later an Inspectorate General of Military Aviation became the agency with oversight of the army. During the Meiji Restoration, the forces loyal to Emperor Meiji were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist daimyōs of Satsuma. This central army, the Imperial Japanese Army, became even more essential after the abolition of the han system in 1871. One of the differences between the samurai and the peasant class was the right to bear arms, this ancient privilege was suddenly extended to every male in the nation. In 1878, the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office, based on the German General Staff, was established directly under the Emperor and was given broad powers for military planning and strategy. The Japanese invasion of Taiwan under Qing rule in 1874 was an expedition by Japanese military forces in response to the Mudan Incident of December 1871. The Paiwan people, who are indigenous peoples of Taiwan, murdered 54 crewmembers of a merchant vessel from the Ryukyu Kingdom on the southwestern tip of Taiwan. 12 men were rescued by the local Chinese-speaking community and were transferred to Miyako-jima in the Ryukyu Islands and it marked the first overseas deployment of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy. Not surprisingly, the new led to a series of riots from disgruntled samurai. One of the riots, led by Saigō Takamori, was the Satsuma Rebellion. Thenceforth, the military existed in an intimate and privileged relationship with the imperial institution, top-ranking military leaders were given direct access to the Emperor and the authority to transmit his pronouncements directly to the troops. The sympathetic relationship between conscripts and officers, particularly junior officers who were mostly from the peasantry, tended to draw the military closer to the people. In time, most people came to look more for guidance in matters more to military than to political leaders. By the 1890s, the Imperial Japanese Army had grown to become the most modern army in Asia, well-trained, well-equipped, however, it was basically an infantry force deficient in cavalry and artillery when compared with its European contemporaries. The Sino-Japanese War would come to symbolize the weakness of the military of the Qing dynasty and this was the result by Japans 120, 000-strong western-style conscript army of two armies and five divisions, which was well-equipped and well-trained when compared with their Qing counterparts. The Treaty of Shimonoseki made the Qing defeat official, with a shift in regional dominance in Asia from China to Japan. In 1899–1900, Boxer attacks against foreigners in China intensified eventually resulting in the siege of the legations in Beijing

32.
Turkish Land Forces
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The Turkish Land Forces, or Turkish Army, is the main branch of the Turkish Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. Official claims state that the army was founded by Modu Chanyu of the Xiongnu Empire in 209 BC, but the modern history of the army began with its formation after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Significant events since the foundation of the Army include combat in the Korean War and in the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the army holds the preeminent place within the armed forces. It is customary for the Chief of the General Staff of the Republic of Turkey to have been the Commander of the Turkish Land Forces prior to his appointment as Turkeys senior ranking officer. Alongside the other two armed services, the Turkish Army has frequently intervened in Turkish politics, which has now been regulated to an extent with the reform of the National Security Council, the current commander of the Turkish Land Forces is General Salih Zeki Çolak. A more recent estimate put the figure at 391,000, factors contributing to this are further destabilization of Syria and Iraq due to ISIS and the Russian intervention in Syria, as-well as the re-emergence of a PKK insurgency in Turkeys south east. On 28 June 1963, the Turkish Army celebrated the 600th anniversary of its foundation, back then, the accepted theory was that the Turkish Armed Forces had been founded in 1363, when the Pençik corps had been formed. In 1968, Yılmaz Öztuna proposed this theory to Cemal Tural, in 1973, when the Turkish Army celebrated the 610th anniversary of its foundation, Nihal Atsız published his claim again. After the 1980 Turkish coup détat, the Turkish Army formally adopted the date 209 BC as its year of foundation, the modern Turkish Army has its foundations in nine remnant Ottoman Army corps after the Armistice of Mudros at the end of World War I. On November 8,1920, the GNA decided to establish an army instead of irregular troops. On August 26,1922, the Army of the Grand National Assembly launched the general offensive known as the Great Offensive against the Greek forces around Kara Hisâr-ı Sâhip. Nurettin Pashas 1st Army and Yakup Şevki Pashas 2nd Army encircled the main body of Major General Nikolaos Trikoupiss group, fahrettin Pashas V Cavalry Corps entered Smyrna on September 9,1922. Şükrü Naili Pashas III Corps entered Constantinople peacefully on October 6,1923, subsequently to the founding of the Republic of Turkey, the Army of the GNA was reorganized into three army inspectorates. In 1935, Turkey purchased 60 T-26 mod.1933 light tanks from the USSR, the Armoured Brigade of the Turkish Army consisted of the 102nd and the 103rd Companies armed with the T-26 mod.1933 tanks in the end of 1937. The reserve group of the brigade had 21 T-26 tanks also, in the beginning of 1940, the Turkish Army had the Armoured Brigade in Istanbul, which belonged to the 1st Army, and the 1st Tank Battalion, which belonged to the 3rd Army. Turkish T-26 tanks were out of service in 1942. During World War II, Turkey mobilized more than a million personnel, the Turkish Army order of battle in 1941 shows a number of formations. The command of the Turkish Army was formed on July 1,1949, the brigade also fought at Gimnyangjang-ni, Operation Ripper, or the Fourth Battle of Seoul, and Vegas

33.
Belgian Land Component
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The Land Component is the land-based branch of the Belgian Armed Forces. The current chief of staff of the Land Component is Major-General Jean-Paul Deconinck, for a detailed history of the Belgian Army from 1830 to post 1945 see Belgian Armed Forces. Ranks in use by the Belgian Army are listed at Belgian military ranks, at the outbreak of war this reorganisation was nowhere near complete and only 117,000 men could be mobilised for the field forces, with the other branches equally deficient. In this way the King secured his control of the command, 4th Division - Namur and Charleroi. In addition, there were garrisons at Antwerp, Liège and Namur, each division contained three mixed brigades, one cavalry regiment, and one artillery regiment, as well as various support units. Each infantry regiment contained three battalions, with one regiment in each brigade having a company of six guns. An artillery regiment had three batteries of four guns, the nominal strength of a division varied from 25,500 to 32,000 all ranks, with a total strength of eighteen infantry battalions, a cavalry regiment, eighteen machine-guns, and forty-eight guns. Two divisions each had an artillery regiment, for a total of sixty guns. In 1940, the King of Belgium was the commander in chief of the Belgian Army which had 100,000 active duty personnel, its strength could be raised to 550,000 when fully mobilized. The army was composed of seven corps, that were garrisoned at Brussels, Antwerp, and Liege. Each infantry divisions had a divisional staff along with three regiments, each of 3,000 men. Each regiment had 108 light machine guns,52 heavy machine guns, nine heavy mortars or infantry gun howitzers, plus six antitank guns. Within the Free Belgian Forces that were formed in Great Britain during the occupation of Belgium between 1940–45, there was a land formation, the 1st Belgian Infantry Brigade. An additional three divisions were raised and trained in Northern Ireland, but the war ended before they could see action, however, they joined the initial Belgian occupation force in Germany, I Belgian Corps, whose headquarters moved to Luedenscheid in October 1946. Of the 75,000 troops that found themselves in Germany on 8 May 1945, there were also two reserve brigades, slightly bigger than the four active brigades, which were intended as reinforcements for the two divisions. After the end of the Cold War, forces were reduced, initial planning in 1991 called for a Belgian-led corps with 2 or 4 Belgian brigades, a German brigade, and possibly a U. S. brigade. However, by 1992 this plan was looking unlikely and in 1993 a single Belgian division with two brigades became part of the Eurocorps, the Land Component is organised using the concept of capacities, whereby units are gathered together according to their function and material. Within this framework, there are five capacities, command, combat, support, services, the command capacity groups the following levels of command, COMOPSLAND, Medium Brigade at Leopoldsburg and Light Brigade at Marche-en-Famenne

34.
Imperial Russian Army
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The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian army consisted of more than 900,000 regular soldiers, the last living veteran of the Russian Imperial Army was the Ukrainian supercentenarian Mikhail Krichevsky, who died in 2008. Russian tsars before Peter maintained professional hereditary musketeer corps, known as streltsy and these were originally raised by Tsar Ivan IV, originally an effective force, they had become highly unreliable and undisciplined. In times of war the forces were augmented by peasants. There were different kinds of regiments, such as regulars, dragoons, in 1631, the Russians created two regular regiments in Moscow. During the Russo-Polish War of 1632–1634, six regular regiments, one reiter regiment. Initially, they recruited children of the boyars and streltsy, volunteers, Cossacks. After the war with Poland, all of the regiments were disbanded, during another Russo-Polish War, they were created again and became a principal force of the Russian army. Often, regular and dragoon regiments were manned with datochniye lyudi for lifelong military service, reiters were manned with small or landless gentry and boyars children and were paid with money for their service. More than a half of the officers were representatives from the gentry. In times of peace, some of the regiments were usually disbanded, in 1681, there were 33 regular regiments and 25 dragoon and reiter regiments. In the late 17th century, regiments of the new type represented more than a half of the Russian Army, Conscription in Russia was introduced by Peter I of Russia in December 1699, though reports say Peters father also used it. Conscription of peasants and townspeople was based on system, per settlement. Initially it was based on the number of households, later it was based on the population numbers, the term of service in the 18th century was for life. In 1793 it was reduced to 25 years, in 1834, it was reduced to 20 years plus five years in the reserve, and in 1855 to 12 years plus three years in the reserve. The history of the Russian army in this era was linked to the name of Russian General Alexander Suvorov, considered one of a few great generals in history who never lost a battle. From 1777 to 1783 Suvorov served in the Crimea and in the Caucasus, becoming a lieutenant-general in 1780, from 1787 to 1791 he again fought the Turks during the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792 and won many victories. Suvorovs leadership also played a key role in a Russian victory over the Poles during the Kościuszko Uprising, furthermore, many lower-level officers were poorly trained and had difficulty getting their men to perform the sometimes complex manoeuvres required in a battle

35.
Hussar
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A Hussar was a member of any one of several types of light cavalry used during the 18th and 19th centuries, beginning in Central Europe. Historically, the term derives from the cavalry of late medieval Hungary, the title and distinctive dress of these horsemen were subsequently widely adopted by light cavalry regiments in European and European colonial armies in the late 17th and 18th centuries. A number of armored or ceremonial mounted units in modern armies retain the designation of hussars, the first written mention of the word Hussarones has been found in documents dating from 1432 in Southern Hungary. A type of light horsemen was already well-established by the 15th century in medieval Hungary. Etymologists are divided over the derivation of the word hussar, byzantinist scholars argue that the term originated in Roman military practice, and the cursarii. 10th-century Byzantine military manuals mention chonsarioi, light cavalry, recruited in the Balkans, especially Serbs and this word was subsequently reintroduced to Western European military practice after its original usage had been lost with the collapse of Rome in the west. According to Websters Dictionary, the word stems from the Hungarian huszár. On the other hand, husz means twenty in Hungarian whilst ar is a unit of measurement or acre. Hussars are so named as they were a form of military levy whereby any land owner with twenty acres was duty bound to provide a mounted and equipped soldier to the army at their own expense. The elaborate uniforms were based on traditional Magyar horsemans clothes with highly braided, tight riding breeches, close fitting pointed boots, the hussars reportedly originated in bands of mostly Serbian warriors, crossing into southern Hungary after the Ottoman conquest of Serbia at the end of the 14th century. Regent-Governor John Hunyadi created mounted units inspired by the Ottomans and his son, Matthias Corvinus, later king of Hungary, is unanimously accepted as the creator of these troops, commonly called Rac. Initially, they fought in bands, but were reorganised into larger. The first hussar regiments comprised the cavalry of the Black Army of Hungary. Under Corvinus command, the took part in the war against the Ottoman Empire in 1485 and proved successful against the sipahis as well as against the Bohemians. After the kings death, in 1490, hussars became the form of cavalry in Hungary in addition to the heavy cavalry. The Habsburg emperors hired Hungarian hussars as mercenaries to serve against the Ottomans, early hussars wore armor when they could afford to it like the later Polish hussars. Hungarian hussars abandoned using shields and later armors and became entirely light cavalry in the first half of the 17th century, initially the first units of Polish hussars in the Kingdom of Poland were formed in 1500, influenced by Serbian mercenaries. A small number of Serbian mercenaries were recruited and became citizens of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Polish heavy hussars of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were far more manoeuvrable than the heavily armoured lancers previously employed

36.
Dragoon
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The word dragoon originally meant mounted infantry, who were trained in horse riding as well as infantry fighting skills. However, usage altered over time and during the 18th century, in most armies, dragoons came to signify ordinary medium cavalry. Dragoon regiments were established in most European armies during the late 17th, the name is derived from a type of firearm, called a dragon, which was a handgun version of a blunderbuss, carried by dragoons of the French Army. The title has been retained in modern times by a number of armoured or ceremonial mounted regiments, the establishment of dragoons evolved from the practice of sometimes transporting infantry by horse when speed of movement was needed. In 1552 Prince Alexander of Parma mounted several companies of infantry on horses to achieve surprise. Another early instance was ordered by Louis of Nassau in 1572 during operations near Mons in Hainaut and it is also suggested the first dragoons were raised by the Marshal de Brissac in 1600. According to old German literature, dragoons were invented by Count Ernst von Mansfeld, one of the greatest German military commanders, there are other instances of mounted infantry predating this. However Mansfeld, who had learned his profession in Hungary and the Netherlands, often used horses to make his troops more mobile. The name possibly derives from a weapon, a short wheellock called a dragon because the first dragoons raised in France had their carbines muzzle decorated with a dragons head. The practice comes from a time when all gunpowder weapons had distinctive names, including the culverin, serpentine, falcon, falconet and it is also sometimes claimed a galloping infantryman with his loose coat and the burning match resembled a dragon. It has also suggested that the name derives from the German tragen or the Dutch dragen. Howard Reid claims that the name and role descend from the Latin Draconarius, Dragoon is occasionally used to mean to subjugate or persecute by the imposition of troops, and by extension to compel by any violent measures or threats. Early dragoons were not organized in squadrons or troops as were cavalry, Dragoon regiments used drummers, not buglers, to communicate orders on the battlefield. Supplied with inferior horses and more equipment, the dragoon regiments were cheaper to recruit. When in the 17th century Gustav II Adolf introduced dragoons into the Swedish Army, he provided them with a sabre, an axe, many of the European armies henceforth imitated this all-purpose set of weaponry. In the Spanish Army, Pedro de la Puente organized a body of dragoons in Innsbruck in 1635, in 1640, a tercio of a thousand dragoons armed with the arquebus was created in Spain. By the end of the 17th century, the Spanish Army had three tercios of dragoons in Spain, plus three in the Netherlands and three more in Milan, in 1704, the Spanish dragoons were reorganised into regiments by Philip V, as were the rest of the tercios. Towards the end of 1776, George Washington realized the need for a branch of the American military

37.
Second Boer War
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The Second Boer War, usually known as the Boer War and also at the time as the South African War, started on 11 October 1899 and ended on 31 May 1902. Great Britain defeated two Boer states in South Africa, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, Britain was aided by its Cape Colony, Colony of Natal and some native African allies. The British war effort was supported by volunteers from the British Empire, including Southern Africa, the Australian colonies, Canada, India. All other nations were neutral, but public opinion in them was largely hostile to Britain, inside Britain and its Empire there also was significant opposition to the Second Boer War. The British were overconfident and under-prepared, the Boers were very well armed and struck first, besieging Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking in early 1900, and winning important battles at Colenso, Magersfontein and Stormberg. Staggered, the British brought in numbers of soldiers and fought back. General Redvers Buller was replaced by Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener and they relieved the three besieged cities, and invaded the two Boer republics in late 1900. The onward marches of the British Army were so overwhelming that the Boers did not fight staged battles in defense of their homeland, the British quickly seized control of all of the Orange Free State and Transvaal, as the civilian leadership went into hiding or exile. In conventional terms, the war was over, Britain officially annexed the two countries in 1900, and called a khaki election to give the government another six years of power in London. However, the Boers refused to surrender and they reverted to guerrilla warfare under new generals Louis Botha, Jan Smuts, Christiaan de Wet and Koos de la Rey. Two more years of attacks and quick escapes followed. As guerrillas without uniforms, the Boer fighters easily blended into the farmlands, which provided hiding places, supplies, the British solution was to set up complex nets of block houses, strong points, and barbed wire fences, partitioning off the entire conquered territory. The civilian farmers were relocated into concentration camps, where very large proportions died of disease, especially the children, then the British mounted infantry units systematically tracked down the highly mobile Boer guerrilla units. The battles at this stage were small operations with few combat casualties The war ended in surrender, the British successfully won over the Boer leaders, who now gave full support to the new political system. Both former republics were incorporated into the Union of South Africa in 1910, the conflict is commonly referred to as simply the Boer War, since the First Boer War is much less well known. Boer was the term for Afrikaans-speaking white South Africans descended from the Dutch East India Companys original settlers at the Cape of Good Hope. It is officially called the South African War and it is known as the Anglo-Boer War among some South Africans. In Afrikaans it may be called the Anglo-Boereoorlog, Tweede Boereoorlog, in South Africa it is officially called the South African War

38.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany

39.
Firearm
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A firearm is a portable gun - a barreled weapon that launches one or more projectiles, often driven by the action of an explosive force. The first primitive firearms originated in 13th-century China when the fire lance was combined with projectiles. The technology gradually spread through the rest of East Asia, South Asia, older firearms typically used black powder as a propellant, but modern firearms use smokeless powder or other propellants. Most modern firearms have rifled barrels to impart spin to the projectile for improved flight stability, modern firearms can be described by their caliber or in the case of shotguns their gauge, by the type of action employed together with the usual means of deportment. The word firearms usually is used in a sense restricted to small arms, shooters aim firearms at their targets with hand-eye co-ordination, using either iron sights or optical sights. The accurate range of pistols generally does not exceed 100 yards, while most rifles are accurate to 550 yards using iron sights, some purpose-built sniper rifles are accurate to ranges of more than 2,200 yards. The smallest of all firearms is the handgun, there are three common types of handguns, single-shot pistols, revolvers, and semi-automatic pistols. Revolvers have a number of firing chambers or charge holes in a revolving cylinder, semi-automatic pistols have a single fixed firing chamber machined into the rear of the barrel, and a magazine so they can be used to fire more than one round. Each press of the fires a cartridge, using the energy of the cartridge to activate the mechanism so that the next cartridge may be fired immediately. This is opposed to double-action revolvers which accomplish the end using a mechanical action linked to the trigger pull. Prior to the 19th century, virtually all handguns were single-shot muzzleloaders, with the invention of the revolver in 1818, handguns capable of holding multiple rounds became popular. Certain designs of auto-loading pistol appeared beginning in the 1870s and had largely supplanted revolvers in military applications by the end of World War I. By the end of the 20th century, most handguns carried regularly by military, police and civilians were semi-automatic, both designs are common among civilian gun owners, depending on the owners intention. A long gun is any firearm that is larger than a handgun and is designed to be held. Early long arms, from the Renaissance up to the century, were generally smoothbore firearms that fired one or more ball shot. Most modern long guns are either rifles or shotguns, both are the successors of the musket, diverging from their parent weapon in distinct ways. A rifle is so named for the spiral fluting machined into the surface of its barrel. Shotguns are predominantly smoothbore firearms designed to fire a number of shot, shotguns are also capable of firing single slugs, or specialty rounds such as bean bags, tear gas or breaching rounds

40.
Royal Lancers
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The Royal Lancers is a cavalry regiment of the British Army. The regiment was formed by an amalgamation of The Queens Royal Lancers and it serves as the Formation Reconnaissance Regiment of the 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade. The regiment was formed by an amalgamation of The Queens Royal Lancers, the amalgamation was announced in July 2012, and the regiment was formed with an amalgamation parade before the Colonel-in-Chief HM The Queen at Richmond Castle on 2 May 2015. Following a series of amalgamations the Royal Lancers is now the sole descendent of six British Army lancer regiments in existence prior to 1922, the regiment is an Armoured Cavalry Regiment, equipped with the CVR family. This will be replaced by the Ajax from 2019 and it will consist of 3 Sabre Squadrons of 16 vehicles each and one Command and Support Squadron. These will be the Scimitar 2 vehicles and later the SCOUT SV, the Royal Lancers forms part of the Royal Armoured Corps. It is based in Catterick as part of the 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade, the Regimental Cap Badge is referred to as the ‘Motto’ and stands for ‘Death or Glory’. The regiment retains order of precedence from the more senior antecedent regiment, the Royal Lancers is now the last regiment in the British Army to retain the title of lancers. It has directly or indirectly inherited the traditions of the six British lancer regiments that were in existence until a series of amalgamations began in 1922. Canada - Lord Strathconas Horse Pakistan - 12th Frontier Force Royal Navy - HMS Prince of Wales Royal Air Force - No.100 Squadron Official webpage Official Facebook Page

French postcard depicting the arrival of 15th Sikh Regiment in France during World War I. The postcard reads, "Gentlemen of India marching to chasten the German hooligans."

A Sikh soldier of the 4th Division (the Red Eagles) of the Indian Army, attached to the British Fifth Army in Italy. Holding a captured swastika after the surrender of German forces in Italy, May 1945. Behind him, a fascist inscriptions says "VIVA IL DUCE", "Long live the Duce" (i.e. Mussolini).

General Ayub Khan arriving to take command of the Pakistan Army in 1951

Two AH-1S Cobra attack helicopters of the Pakistan Army Aviation Wing at AVN Base, Multan. These were sold to Pakistan by the US during the Soviet-Afghan war to help defend Pakistan against a possible attack by the Soviets.